One of my favourite song titles (from Half Man Half Biscuit‘s Cammell Laird Social Club album) seems appropriate today, given the economic news.
As an individual micro-business, the bigger patterns of the economy kind of don’t matter – and kind of do. It can be hard to make the connection sometimes. At one level, it’s of course still possible to be doing very well even in a tough environment. A disappointing average for business as a whole still means there are a whole lot of businesses doing fine. Hopefully Shore is one of them. The Autumn’s been sparser than it was last year but then last year I was totally flat out all Autumn. On the other hand, it’s definitely been a tougher environment over the last few quarters and one suspects it’s not completely unrelated to the general doom and gloom out there.
But if it cheers anyone else up, I’ve had a real pick-up of enquiries and prospects in the last few weeks and, if anything, I have more potential projects in the offing for 2012 than I had at the same stage last year. Whether they will come to fruition is another question!
Another nice optimistic note is a meeting with some lovely AQR colleagues in The Crypt at St.Martin’s-in-the-Fields this morning, discussing an initiative to help nurture emerging young talents in the qual research arena.
So, unlike the Derbyshire Peak District-based hero of the HMHB song, who has lost his Eyam-born girlfriend to an Eva Cassidy-listening tv producer called Steve in Notting Hill, I’m feeling pretty upbeat.
But then, as John Peel used to say of listening to The Smiths‘ Girlfriend in a Coma, misery can be expressed in an uplifting and funny way.
Isn’t black humour what we do best in this country? Let the good times roll …
Strangers on the Shore 